Log #36: Hmmm... that's odd.

I'm not sure, but I think that if I'd woken up Sunday morning and run a full marathon, I would have set a PR. What's strange about this is not that I still have 12 weeks of training left, but the fact that I only got 5 1/2 hours of sleep and went out on a "booze cruise" Friday night.

My band had a show Saturday night, and it went late. I didn't get home until about 1:45, didn't sleep until 2:00, and then got up at 7:30 to run a ridiculous amount of miles. I looked outside and saw grey clouds threatening to make my run even more uncomfortable. After stretching, changing, and Red-Bull-ing myself, my girlfriend and I headed out for 17 shitty miles... so I thought.

The goal pace was a 9:00 mile for 17 miles. I have a huge problem running that slow, so I knew I'd probably be closer to 8:45. I also assumed that I'd burn out for the last 3-4 miles, as I was REALLY tired. I started the run pretty slowly, very close to a 9:00 pace. The second mile was 8:40, and I just kept feeling better and better. The 5th mile was a 7:40... oops! I slowed down, and ran the next 5 miles very close to my marathon pace, 8:00 per mile. The last 5 miles or so were run at about an 8:30 pace, with a 7:40 for mile 17. I decided to push myself on the last one to see how hard I could go with not much gas in the tank.

When I got home, I checked my GPS. My average pace was 8:20. What!?!? The stranger part was how great I felt. My legs were stiff, but I didn't feel gross or even especially tired anymore. I realized that my conditioning has been working so well that 17 miles don't really feel so hard anymore. The physical act of running the miles is no longer daunting. That doesn't mean that it isn't still difficult... the mental strain of keeping your body moving for that long is still tough on you... but I am definitely feeling a lot stronger on those last few miles than I've ever felt.

I also think that I'm improving my running economy immensely. Running economy essentially refers to the amount of running a person can do with a certain amount of oxygen. If you improve your running economy, you can run faster and farther using the same amount of energy. Getting in better shape helps, but improving your technique helps alot too, and I think that's what I'm doing. I've noticed that when I want to run faster, I can either speed up my turnover rate (the number of steps I take each second) or I can extend my stride so I cover more ground with each step. I used to think that keeping my turnover rate constant and just increasing my stride length would be easier, but this is definitely not the case for me. By keeping my stride length pretty consistent and just taking more steps, I can go much faster without using too much more energy.

Anyway, to continue the saga from my last post, I took the advice of a few of you and tried to find this guy's time online. I found out his last name and searched, and absolutely no results came up. My girlfriend laughed at me for going to so much trouble to see if this guy is lying or not. I still think he's full of shit.